Full Description
This book explores the concept of cyberplace as a mode of inhabiting the contemporary world. As a result, it suggests that, for many communities, unlocking cyberspace and inhabiting cyberplaces is now an integral part of their coming-to-the-globalised-world.
Boos reviews in the detail the existing academic literature from cultural anthropology, human geography, and sociology on "cyberspace", concluding that a phenomenological perspective on cyberspace provides the possibility of gaining a deep understanding of our contemporary lifeworlds, in which on- and offline practices constantly intermingle. In four chapters, he applies the developed theoretical and methodological approaches to the case of Siena's neighbourhoods, the contrade, analysing their websites and discussing the implications of his findings for understanding contemporary processes of community building and for future research on cyberspace.
This concise andaccessible book will be of interest to advanced students and scholars in cultural anthropology, human geography, media studies and sociology.
Contents
Chapter 1: Geographies of Cyberspace: Internet, Community, Space and Place.- Chapter 2: A Phenomenological Approach on Cyberspace: Cyberplace, Community and Neighbourhood.- Chapter 3: Methodology and Methods of Analysing Representations on Websites.- Chapter 4: The Contemporary Contrade of Siena.- Chapter 5: The Symbolic Realm and Historical Framework of the Contrade.- Chapter 6: The Websites of the Contrade.- Chapter 7: Unlocking Cyberspace - Creating Cyberplaces.- Chapter 8: Idealising Cyberplaces - the Style of Representation in the Global Arena.- Chapter 9: Inhabiting Cyberspace and Emerging Cyberplaces.
